Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Tomato and Strawberry Tour in Florida

Tomato Field Tour

The almost endless rows of newly planted tomato
plants. This farm does Roma's and Beefsteak tomatoes
After my tour of the tomato fields in Florida, it reinforced my decision to only purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from the U.S. as I saw firsthand the safety and care put into growing this crop.
The field boss, Marco on the right talking to one of the
farmers on the bus tour

Imagine 2 tour buses full of farmers descending on the McClure Tomato Farm all interested in row crops as this was a “tomato field 101 lesson” to us.

The view from the back where the 6 workers
 would sit and plant tomatoes.
The field boss, Marco, explained the process, first seedling plants arrive from a nursery and are hand-planted by 6 workers as pictured above. Another 3 or 4 men follow on foot behind the tractor to ensure the plants get fully planted or plant another seeding if by chance the worker misses getting a plant within the target area. They plant the tomato plants in a continuous stage (staggered growing) and the first planting begins towards the end of January. Rather a foreign thought for most of us as we were all coming from the lands of snow and cold.

This tractor is used to spray for weeds between the rows
of tomatoes and notice the  boxed in covers that
shield the plants from the spray being used to keep weeds down
Another view of the endless rows of plants

Close up of the tomato plant in the plastic. Plastic helps keep weeds
away from the plant, plus it keep the plant healthier by not
having the dirt splash up on the plant that can cause blight
The plants are flood irrigated and grass is planted around the edges of the field as a ground cover so the sandy soil doesn’t blow and damage the delicate plants. Once the plants get big enough, they will be secured to the stakes. The crew can plant 35 rows of plants in one day. Plants are ready to be harvested in 90 days and are picked once a week by hand. Everything is documented to the hilt from the nursery stage to what is used on the plant, temperatures, treatments, etc. In this climate, the farmer gets 2 crops of tomatoes per season. After the season is over, the plastic and stakes are removed, then the ground is tilled and sorghum is planted. Once the sorghum gets to a certain stage, it will be cut and worked into the ground for organic matter for the next planting season of tomatoes. Cost of production to raise tomatoes is $10-$12,000 per acre and for that reason, many growers moved their production to Mexico as the labor is cheaper and there are not the same restrictions on what kinds of treatments can be used on the tomato. This is why I choose to only buy produce from within the USA as our farmers can only use highly regulated treatment/products that are extensively tested for safety, plus farmers using these products must complete training to ensure proper application.

The production manager at the processing plant
Next we drove about 20 min to the processing plant and were greeted by the plant manager. He explained that due to the recent frost, they had lost their entire crop so the processing plant was empty until the next crop was ready to be harvested. The manager pointed out the bins that the tomatoes are brought in and explained that they all get a chlorine solution bath as another measure of safety to ensure there is no e-coli contamination. Next the tomatoes are hand sorted as shown here:

One of the many stools a worker sits on and sorts tomatoes

After the tomato has gone through the sorting process,
they get boxed for delivery

Just to give you an idea of how big this processing plant was.
It was so clean, you could have eaten off of the floor!
As the tomatoes make their way through the processing plant they are photographed 6 times among their journey and sorted by grade and color. Also in the process a number sticker gets placed on the tomatoes that can be traced to the exact row in which the tomatoes were grown. The record keeping is onerous at best and everything is documented. The Food and Drug Administration regularly pops in for inspection and the manager noted they are pure business and intense. I got the impression that these FDA inspections are about as pleasant as a root canal.

Strawberry Field Tour:

Next we boarded the bus for a tour of the strawberry fields. We were met by the matriarch of the Parke Strawberry farm.

Mrs. Parke, even her handbag had a strawberry pattern and
she drove a red car.

Unfortunately, we were not let out into the sorting area nor were we allowed in the processing plant, which was a little disappointing. However, we did get to see their hydroponic strawberry farm. Two sons now run the farms, one does the conventionally grown strawberry and the other does organic hydroponic. This farm has 250 acres of conventionally grown strawberries and ½ acre of hydroponic grown strawberries. It was explained that the hydroponic field can grown 57,000 plants on a ½ acre compared to the 9,000 plants done conventionally on the same amount of ground.

A view of the hydroponic plants in their heavy gauge
styrofoam containers

This was Mark, the son that runs this operation

A close up of the plants and containers

Next we were treated to huge strawberry shortcakes and the line was like being in a theme park, there had to be at least 100 people ahead of us all waiting for this tasty all American treat.

All I can say was, yummmm

To sum it up, tomato and strawberries are an extremely labor intensive crops and it gave me a whole new appreciation for fruit and vegetable farmers. So there you have it, now when you go to the grocery store and see the little stickers on the tomato plants or on a container of strawberries, that are grown in the USA, you will know you have the best and safest fruit or vegetable for you and your family.  I know I feel better. So buy American my friend. 

As always, glad you stopped by and hope you enjoyed the tour via this website.  Email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com if you have any questions.  Best Regards, Gayle